1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to an improved data processing system, and in particular to a method and system for enhanced communication on a data processing system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for enhanced communication by providing language translation of received messages on a data processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Language translation applications (software) are well known in the art. With the fast evolving global electronic network following the opening up of world-wide communication channels such as the Internet or World Wide Web, transmission of data and non-data communication in languages other than that of the receiving entity/system is becoming more and more common. The World Wide Web has introduced near instantaneous world wide communications; however, although the Web has helped to bring us all closer together, it has not removed the language barriers which exist in intercultural communications.
Email communication makes up a significant and fast growing portion of the communications environment which exist on the Internet. More and more users globally are communicating via email which is considerably cheaper than regular telephone network or other related communications systems.
Because of the global nature of the internet e-mail network, messages are often transmitted and received in languages other than the language of the recipient of the message. A message from Japan or Holland sent to a U.S.A. recipient would be received in Japanese or Dutch, respectively. With English as the preferred language of communication in the U.S.A., it is very probable that the recipient would be unable to comprehend the email without first translating it into English. Similarly, if the data processing system referencing the data or communication is configured in English, then it would not be able to reference the information without first translating it into English.
Currently, the only way to translate a message of this type is to transfer the text from the location it is received from to a language translation environment.
This often involves a cut and paste procedure wherein the user first cuts the foreign text from the receiving location, opens up a language translation software on the data processing system or alternatively going to a language translation environment on the web and then pastes the text into the a viewport within the language translation environment. The recipient then requests that the text be translated into a desired language.
AltaVista (TM) Translation utilizing Systran technology is one of the more common web locations which provide a language translation service. AltaVista's Translation Assistant provides a free service to the Internet community. Systran, a leader in the field of machine translations, provides a machine translation of the message received from one language to another selected language.
In machine translations, a data processing system is configured for translation utilizing language translation software. AltaVista Translation Assistant thus provides a user with a tool to translate a grammatically correct document into something comprehensible, although not perfect.
Systran Software, Inc. is the leading developer of natural language machine translation, having developed 28 language pairs. The Systran interface screen prompts a user to provide plain text in an input location. The user may then select the language pair he/she desires to be translated to/from (eg. French to English). The user then clicks on the “translate” button to complete the process. The text entered is translated into its English form and displayed to the user below the original French form. Other implementations of the Systran software permits for an entire URL content to be translated. Additionally, a language translation menu item may be added to the user's internet browser which access the Systran location directly.
Considerable research has been carried out on computer systems for the automatic translation of text. To date all translations have to be invoked by the user as described above. This is time consuming and also redundant, particularly when the user is already aware that he/she desires to read all communications in a particular language or alternatively where the data processing system has been configured for interfacing in a particular language.
It would therefore be desirable to have a method and system for automatically translating all incoming communication which is in a different language (foreign language) into the language desired by the user and/or configured on the data processing system. It would be further desirable to have translation immediately upon receipt without user manipulation or request for each individual communication.